24 September 2008

My 1/144 Panzer Collection

As I've got curious requests from Meronpan and James on my 1/144 scale tank collection, I got some time to take some pictures before I have to leave home for UK.

Well then, let's have a look at the other side of me.

Blitzkrieg!

Before I heard of Danny Choo, before I have come across figures/figurines from Radiant Dreamer and Valiant, and even before I've resumed interest on Gundams and anime, I was a 1/144 tank collector and a fan of military (mainly ground warfare and WWII) for the past 4 years. Out of my 200+ (I guess) armour miniatures, I have mostly 1/144 German panzers, as they have the greatest variety.

As I have no proper display sets, these little models tend to build up a lot of dusts just like figures and gunplas.

From small to big: The German panzers grew bigger and bigger as the war progresses.The smallest Panzer I on the left can sit nicely on top of my thumb.

For some reasons, I've got these trays to hold some of my collection. The three trays further away from the camera are the mordern tank collections.

The rest of my collection are on these paper trays as a comrpomised solution. I have some Soviet and US tanks too but they lack variety compared to the German armour.

My collection are mostly shokugans, which are similar to gashapon toys. Their small sizes and cheap prices make them very collectible. Will talk a bit more about shokugan next time.

Strange looking vehicles, and they all exist.

These are specials that are available rarely in some sets/collection series. Getting one of those are usually via pure luck, but there are local shops that pre-open them and sells the whole set with the special item for a certain price.

I have a few 1/144 planes in my collection too, but they tend to have parts falling off. The strange plane shown here is a German Do-335.

One of my latest to my recent collection: German bridgelayer tank from Metal Troops. Metal Troops makes very high quality models, but they are also unbelievably expensive as well as in limited numbers. Just two of those and I can get myself a figma with some change left over. >_<

I hope you've enjoyed seeing 'the other side of me'. If time allows I would like to show more of my collection, but I have to leave it for a later time. It will be getting harder for me to keep up with the Internet and the Blogosphere as I am now in UK, but I will try my best to update whenever I have the time to do so.

So you're more of a military model fan than Gundam. ^^ I guessed so a bit when you showed me your custom colored Guncannon the last time, very military-like as well. ^^

I'm quite a Tiger fan myself, King Tiger specifically, but I don't think I know much about them as compared to you. I just like the mecha design of this war relics. There are very nice clips on Youtube showing master modeler's work on Tiger I's model as well. Not sure if you watched them before:

A-Amazing, Simply amazing! D: You've got such great taste! I, too, love my German tanks and aircraft.. this is the first time I've seen anyone else interested in the same class that I am.m(_ _)m I take my hat off to you, you're an inspiration to fellow gunji-otaku ^^[deleted my post due to a silly typo ^^;]

@ NK:Hahaha so you were already "suspicious" of me when you saw my green Guncannon a few months ago, but to be honest my collection has pretty much come to a halt a while ago :PWhile I am not a modeler (it's too much effort foe me T_T), I too like the designs and the technology of the German arsenal. I'm quite a fan of the King Tiger/Tiger II too! Will check out the videos when I have proper Internet access~

@ suki:How nice to know that you like the German military as well! Although I am slowly building my horizon towards other things, I am still keeping my previous interests close to me. It is always great to know someone sharing the same interests as others!

@ lobotman:Haha I had friends joked at me that I have more panzers than the Führer himself...

I don't understand the Nipponese fascination with German tanks...most of them were failures on the battlefield, the only very good ones were the long barreled Pz IVs and the Panther...the superheavies were just waste of good steel and good crews...I find Russian tanks much more compelling...

@ Kull:I don't fully disagree with you. While most of Panzer IV and Panther tend to be the better all-rounders, others are created due to cheaper costs (e.g. StuG III) or various reasons such as shifting their tactics to defense more than offense as the war becomes more and more in favour to the Allies. But I won't dwell on that as these things tend to lead to long debates.

The reason why Allied armour do not appear on models as much as the German ones is due to the fact that they tend to lack variety, making them not as interesting or compelling for modellers to make.

@ Little Plastic Man:Thanks for visiting! 1/72 scale is a very sensible scale for collecting or modelling, along with 1/35 scale. The 1/144 scale has a more niche fanbase, and perhaps a bit too small for a lot of enthusiast to collect I think.